Bohunice castle

The prominent Hrádok site above the village of Bohunice was already inhabited in prehistoric times. Its strategic position above the Sikenica valley and near one of the approaches to the central Slovak ore-bearing region suggests that a fortified settlement may have existed here as early as the Bronze Age, later developing into a hillfort protected by an earth-and-timber rampart reinforced with stone.

Settlement of the site continued into the Early Middle Ages. The local place name Hrádok, the position of the site, and the surviving remains of masonry suggest that a small tower-like fortified manor probably developed here during the Middle Ages.

Structures of this type were widespread in the territory of present-day Slovakia approximately from the 12th to the 15th century. They generally served as residences of local landowners, but could also fulfill strategic and guard functions.

According to the local monograph, the fortified manor at Bohunice was intended to protect the route leading toward the mining towns. During the period of Ottoman threat, the site is said to have served as a guard post and to have formed part of a warning system for the local population.

The slopes of Hrádok were intensively used for viticulture during the medieval and early modern periods. The establishment of vineyards and the terracing of the slopes probably significantly damaged or destroyed the older rampart fortifications.

Despite this, fragments of walls built of dry-laid rubble stone and stone terraces have survived in the summit area, some of which may be related to the earlier fortifications. Vineyard houses with cellars have also survived on the lower parts of the slopes.

At the end of the 19th century, local teacher Samuel Hrúz found several stone axes at Hrádok, which he donated through Andrej Kmeť to the collections of the Slovak National Museum in Martin.

In 1957, archaeologist Juraj Bárta of the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra carried out a surface archaeological survey of the site, during which he discovered flint blades. He prepared further find reports in 1962. One of them documents Early Medieval settlement at the site through the discovery of a fragment of a ceramic vessel.

Bohunice is also associated with finds of small silver Celtic coins, probably miniature tetradrachms of the Veľký Bysterec type, minted by the Cotini in the 1st century BC. Information about them survives in older unauthorized notes of the documentation department of the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra. The exact findspot of the coins is unknown, however, and their connection with the Hrádok site remains only a hypothesis.

Current knowledge of the site is based mainly on older finds, surface surveys, and find reports. The exact form, extent, and structural development of the medieval fortified manor cannot yet be reliably reconstructed. More detailed information could be provided by a systematic archaeological investigation of the site.